Noa Pothoven of Arnhem in the Netherlands is legally euthanised

This very sad story is, to me, equally frightening. A 17 year old girl in the Netherlands was molested and raped as a young girl. She said that the pain of dealing with this trauma was "insufferable", and under Netherland's laws she was "euthanised" with the assistance of the State.

Noa Pothoven, 17, has been legally euthanised in the Netherlands, saying the pain she was dealing with after a childhood rape was “insufferable”.

Noa, from Arnhem, said in a social media post a day before her death last Sunday that she “breaths but no longer lives”.

Noa wrote an autobiography called Winning or Learning, which details her battles with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anorexia after being molested and raped as a young child.

So, she obviously was not coping well with a (serious) childhood trauma. I am guessing that the psychiatric care she had received was not having the desired effect...up to the point of her death. But...she was only 17, still an adolescent with a long road ahead of her - to reach maturity, continue to get medical help, to form new and healthier relationships, find new meaning in her life (like she might have found in motherhood, for example).

Instead, with the blessing of - and the help of - the State, she was put to death!

She wrote...

“I will get straight to the point: within a maximum of 10 days I will die. After years of battling and fighting, I am drained. I have quit eating and drinking for a while now, and after many discussions and evaluations, it was decided to let me go because my suffering is unbearable.”

It was decided...

She wasn't terminal from disease or physical injury. She was suffering from PTSD and depression. This was considered legal grounds for euthanasia.

What has our world come to?

Her life's ending, and what she suffered as a child, is horid enough on its own. What is terrifying is the possibility of this becoming (or increasingly sliding toward) a state-sanctioned standard for when care should be removed - or, worse, when the state is entitled to order involuntary euthanasia.

Children as young as 12 can opt for euthanasia in the Netherlands but only after a doctor determines that the patient’s pain is unbearable.

Startling Euthanasia News

a reply to: mobiusmale

She wasn't even old enough to buy alcohol how could she be old enough to make this decision ? This is just wrong ...........

a reply to: mobiusmale

I am pretty libertarian in the fact that I think everyone has the right to choose when and how they want to die. HOWEVER I think she was too young to properly make the decision and the state should have been mature enough to legally make her wait a few more years to make sure.

a reply to: Gargoyle91

Absolutely right that she was not old enough to make this decision (maybe legally she was in the Netherlands...but not morally).

Worse than this, the adults in the room - who should have been there to protect her - including her doctor, sanctioned this killing. Scandalous.

a reply to: Gargoyle91

In Holland you can buy beer and wine when you are like 15 or 16. But yes I think she was too young.
CORRECTION it seems like things have changed since I grew up there in the 80s and 90s. Now you have to be 18 . But anyway I agree with the decision if she was older and more mature.

The problem with suicide -- which this effectively is -- is that the wrong person usually dies.

originally posted by: chris_stibrany
a reply to: Gargoyle91

In Holland you can buy beer and wine when you are like 15 or 16. But yes I think she was too young.
CORRECTION it seems like things have changed since I grew up there in the 80s and 90s. Now you have to be 18 . But anyway I agree with the decision if she was older and more mature.

Her age makes this particularly egregious, but to be put to death by the State, because you are suffering from PTSD and depression is not (IMO) acceptable at any age.

What about, say, an elderly person who is having a really hard time dealing with the death of their spouse...can't sleep, not eating, not functioning normally...is really sad and says he/she wishes they could just go and join their partner in the afterlife.

Should the doctor say, "Sure come on back on Friday and I'll put you to sleep."?

This kind of thinking is a very dangerous and slippery slope.

I believe this girl had many years of psychiatric help that didn't help, and not for the lack of trying. She had to go through a hell of a lot of qualifiers before she was allowed to continue to her death. It's not decided willy-nilly.

There are some traumas that simply can't be fixed. And people, as they're wired naturally. Effectively telling those suffering in private, unending pits of indescribable hell to just shake it off, they'll get over it, is about as cold as it gets and the highlight of human selfishness. "I don't care about you and your suffering, why don't you think of MEEEEEE first?"

Death is the one thing we should have utmost control over, not others. NEVER others. Deciding whether to end the game or not on YOUR terms should be held more near & dear than anything else, because it's the freest choice we all collectively have on this damned planet. Removing that ability to make the choice is an abomination.

a reply to: Nyiah

A line has to be drawn now any rich parent can get rid of their unruly kid by paying off shady doctors NOPE NOPE NOPE

originally posted by: Gargoyle91
a reply to: Nyiah

A line has to be drawn now any rich parent can get rid of their unruly kid by paying off shady doctors NOPE NOPE NOPE

Right.
If you think it's a new possibility to do something to the kid that drives you nuts, then you've never heard of JFK's sister, Rosemary. Not his mother, his sister. Daddy had her lobotomized. IMO, that's a worse existence to bestow your lamented offspring, he blendered her brain.

Edit: And then the cherry on top was to lock her away in a facility her entire life. And didn't tell anyone she was alive. She beat on her mother when she found out about her & went and visited her.

But of course, nobody ever kills off or hides their undesirable offspring already, no, assisted suicide is going to be that straw. RIGHT.

originally posted by: Gargoyle91
a reply to: Nyiah

A line has to be drawn now any rich parent can get rid of their unruly kid by paying off shady doctors NOPE NOPE NOPE

Or wanna-be-rich (via inheritance) kids can have their parents declared severely depressed, and have them offed.

If doctors (and other women's health professionals) are willing to perform abortions and then sell baby body parts...I am sure it would not be real difficult to find MD's willing to work on commission if they had a legal avenue to "euthanize" folks.

a reply to: mobiusmale

A sad sick waste and the ultimate example of self-determination.

a reply to: mobiusmale

What is truly sad is that the State takes children away from parents to forcibly vaccinate them,

and yet cannot force feed a short course of vitamins and feel good dopamine to at least give this 17 year old a chance?


I have known people who fight depression daily, when their despondency leaves temporarily they make better decisions, in other words the longer you are stable the better your thinking and health improvement.

Now no-one truly can feel the pain & trauma she went through. I understand the horrific nature of her abuse – I’m just wary of the thin line that protects human life from State sanctioned killing.

A while ago I read that certain countries have opened the conversation on the elderly being able to end their life at their own time of choosing.

Whilst I understand that counseling is given – there will come a time when it is normalized, even more so as resources become stretched from a shrinking tax base and declining birth rate in western 1st world countries

originally posted by: Peeple

originally posted by: mobiusmale
...like she might have found in motherhood...

Are you serious? Your advice to someone who got raped and traumatised to the point where her life was endless suffering is "get #ed by some dude and than press out a watermelon in front of a bunch of strangers"
That's literally the dumbest, most heartless thing anyone ever wrote on ATS

Was just an example...could just as easily have said she could become a 1st responder, or a truama counsellor, or a nun...or a million other things.

There are literally millions of women (maybe tens of millions) who have been molested at some point ,then gone on to become happy wives and mothers. Press out a watermelon huh? Nice.

Had Noa picked up a firearm and done this to herself, they would have made her a victim of gun violence in the US. Had she been in prison and they made the decision to let her go, this would be cruel and unusual punishment.

Sometimes, society is just plain schizophrenic with how it views things to suit its various agendas.

originally posted by: mobiusmale

originally posted by: Peeple

originally posted by: mobiusmale
...like she might have found in motherhood...

Are you serious? Your advice to someone who got raped and traumatised to the point where her life was endless suffering is "get #ed by some dude and than press out a watermelon in front of a bunch of strangers"
That's literally the dumbest, most heartless thing anyone ever wrote on ATS

Was just an example...could just as easily have said she could become a 1st responder, or a truama counsellor, or a nun...or a million other things.

There are literally millions of women (maybe tens of millions) who have been molested at some point ,then gone on to become happy wives and mothers. Press out a watermelon huh? Nice.

Pushing a watermelon through a keyhole has been the euphemism for ages.

Again, she didn't just stroll in and fill out some paperwork to have it done same-day. She went through years of heavy therapy and a multitude of qualifiers to be given the right to decide. Get your panties out of your hoo-ha, it's a tightly controlled thing with a lot of measures in place to make sure it's the last resort option.

originally posted by: Nyiah

originally posted by: Peeple

originally posted by: mobiusmale
...like she might have found in motherhood...

Are you serious? Your advice to someone who got raped and traumatised to the point where her life was endless suffering is "get #ed by some dude and than press out a watermelon in front of a bunch of strangers"
That's literally the dumbest, most heartless thing anyone ever wrote on ATS

Yeah, I had to ignore that one on first read. "Insensitive" doesn't even cut it. "Utterly retarded" isn't backhanded enough to leave a mark, either.

I wasn't aware that I had posted in the Mud Pit.

I am "utterly retarded" now...thanks. An example used in the OP that triggered you aside, the central point of my writing it remains.

I think it’s great my country is giving her an exit she wants. Her life must have been unbearable and otherwise she had to commit an ungracefull suicide. I think she, all her family and caregivers have done everything they can. Just let her rest in peace now, she deserves it...

Ps: It’s a very strict process in the Netherlands to get permision for it.